The inventor herein has recognized a need for a self-diagnosing watchdog monitoring system that utilizes a microcontroller with an enable application that monitors operation of a disable application. The enable application is provided to start a timer within a watchdog integrated circuit (i.e., IC), and the disable application is provided to stop the timer in the watchdog IC. The enable application detects when the disable application is malfunctioning and generates a control message to take a safe action in response thereto.